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Montebello E-News

 April 30, 2010 

The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.  Thomas Edison

Please tell me if you see this statement displayed in the offices of any pharmaceutical company.

1. Announcements
 2.  Good Cooks Make Good Neighbors
3. About Montebello E-News and “My Montebello”

This is welcome. A "collective group" of Montebello and other artists from the surrounding area are displaying their paintings at local chamber restaurants in the city of Montebello. ...For further information regarding the art exhibits, please call Eleanor Brown at 323.721.3487. From Spotlight on Montebello, April, 2010.

Mark your calendar. Annual food fair and fest in Montebello, Saturday, May 22, 2010, from noon to 10 p.m.  For more information, www.armenianfoodfair.com or call 323.893.9053. // The Community of Montebello relay walkers go around the clock in the battle against cancer during the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. ... Teams of enthusiastic citizens will gather at Schurr High School for an overnight relay against cancer from 9:00 a.m. On May 1 until 9:00 a.m. On May 2. ... Information about how to form a team or become involved in Relay for Life of Montebello is available by calling Denise Sandoval, 626.552.5345, or visit www.relayforlife.org. ... These announcements from Spotlight on Montebello, April, 2010.

When the mail is not safe in Montebello. On April 1, while walking on my block, somebody saw a pile of paper on the street. Going to clean it up (should we be surprised? should cleanliness depend on the weekly street sweeper, which might not pick up all trash and debris?), the person saw that there were several envelopes, each torn open, each containing a check except for one, from which the check apparently had been taken. Each envelope had a stamp, but no cancellation, leading to the conclusion that the envelopes had been taken from a mailbox. It seemed that, from the different return addresses, the pilfered mailbox had been the one in front of the Oroweat Bakery on South Vail Avenue. I am aware that mail has been taken from the mailbox at Beverly and Twenty-first and from the mailbox on the south side of our post office. Should we be warned?

What does this mean for Montebello? WASHINGTON - Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years. In fact, demographers say this year could be the "tipping point" when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites. The numbers are growing because immigration to the U.S. has boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. Minorities made up 48 percent of U.S. children born in 2008, the latest census estimates available, compared to 37 percent in 1990. ... From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35793316/ns/us_news-life/

When the applause dies down and the party is over, we have callos and las crudas, calluses and a hangover. "Obama's Reform: No Cure for What Ails Us", by David U. Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, British Medical Journal, March 30, 2010. As the applause fades for President Obama's health reform, David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler fear that the new law will simply pump funds into a dysfunctional, market driven system. "It was a stirring scene: President Obama signing the new health reform law before a cheering crowd, and a beaming vice president whispering in his ear, "This is a big [expletive] deal." As doctors who have labored for universal health care we'd like to join the celebration, but we can't. Morphine has been dispensed for the treatment of cancer - the reform may offer a bit of temporary relief, but it is certainly no cure. ... Unfortunately, private insurers win in the marketplace not through efficiency or quality but by maximizing revenues from premiums while minimizing outlays. They pursue this goal by avoiding the sick and forcing doctors and patients to navigate a byzantine payment bureaucracy that currently consumes 31 percent of total health spending. The health reform bill's requirement that uninsured people buy insurers' defective products will fortify these firms financially and politically. Meanwhile insurers will exploit loopholes to dodge the law's restrictions on their misbehaviors. For instance, the limit on administrative overheads will predictably elicit accounting gimmickry, for example by relabeling some insurance personnel as "clinical care managers." While insurers are prohibited from "cherry picking" - selectively enrolling healthy, profitable patients - they've circumvented similar prohibitions in the Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs). The ban on revoking policies after an individual falls ill similarly replicates existing but ineffective state bans. ..."

Is it possible to make too much money? Judge James Chalfant of the Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled that Culver City may regulate expansion or intensification of new oil wells in the Baldwin Hills oil field on March 26, 2010 [sic].  The Court rejected the effort by Texas oil company Plains Exploration and Production Company, the current owner of the Montebello Hills oilfield, to throw out the City's moratorium on new oil drilling... "A city could determine that an oil producing business has realized or will realize a sufficient return on its investment and a prohibition on oil production thereafter is justified." http://www.topix.net/city/montebello-ca/2010/03/court-upholds-the-
right-of-the-people-to-regulate-urban-oil-field-baldwin-hills#lastPost

Whom do you choose to believe? Recall this quote by Walter Lippman, printed in the December 15, 2009, E-News:  The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class. Now, consider: ...An academic survey of more than 500 US television meteorologists found that one in four of them say there is no global warming, and 27% agree with the statement "global warming is a scam". ... The views on climate change show a clear split between TV meteorologists and academic climatologists, which the New York Times suggests may be the result of resentment on the part of the weather presenters: "Climatologists are almost always affiliated with universities or research institutions where a doctoral degree is required. Most meteorologists, however, can get jobs as weather forecasters with a college degree." http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/30/
climate-change-scepticism-us-television

Is Chinese the language of the twenty-first century? Not yet, apparently, but... Dear Colleague, It's Chengfu Liu from Service Learning China. We are initiating a project called "Together We Grow". We are looking for American students from high schools and colleges to connect online with their Chinese counterparts. Here in China, All the students are learning English and many of them desire to communicate with their foreign friends to learn about each other's cultures, history, people, society, education, and so on. "Together We Grow" will provide such an opportunity to them. The communications between Sino-American students consist of two parts: one is regular email contact, another is text, audio and video chat through Skype (instant message). Thus, these students in our project will have very strong connections for quite a long period of time. This will greatly improve mutual understandings among these young people. Note: It is an one on one project. Students will work in pairs. If interested, please write to me at Service.Learning.China@gmail.com or Skype me at Service.Learning.China. Thanks very much. Chengfu Liu, Service Learning China. From HE-SL listserv, April 19, 2010

Is this the Albert we know? This is an example of how little we know about—or learn from—celebrated people. Albert Einstein - Why socialism : a few quotes from Einstein's essay - "I shall call "workers" all those who do not share in the ownership of the means of production ... the worker produces new goods which become the property of the capitalist ... Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands ... The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. [Emphasis mine.] This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists ... an "army of unemployed" almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job ... unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market ... The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions ... This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career ... " http://www.awitness.org/journal/great_depression.html

"No" to this:  Please help us ensure all Americans learn about Cesar’s life and work. The Cesar Chavez National Holiday Coalition is gathering signatures on petitions asking Congress to designate March 31, Cesar’s birthday and the day the UFW was founded, as Cesar Chavez Day. Sign the petition today. Help ensure Cesar's legacy is recognized and celebrated throughout our nation with a federal paid holiday and a day of service and learning in our public schools. Excerpted from an e-mail dated March 28, 2010. // But "yes" to this:  Federal paid holidays do not teach us, the public, about people of vision.  In our age, every holiday is an excuse to recreate, except in the few instances when there is a parade, to which relatively few from among us come.  The better course would be to set aside two hours during the workday or school day to learn about the person of vision and, as a year-round reminder, to have a poster where everyone could see it. From an e-mail reply of March 28, 2010.

Ready for war? I cannot understand those people who say that we have more than enough oil and have no need to conserve. Even if we did have more than enough, we would be wise to save the oil for a "rainy day". Or, perhaps, just the opposite of a rainy day. See the problem which China faces. ... Indeed, China has a good reason to want to increase renewables: the same report indicates that China's oil and gas resources will be depleted within two decades at the current rate of extraction. And those numbers don't take into consideration the 28% increase in oil demand in January. Indeed, the ongoing drought in China's southwest spells higher demand for fossil and other resources this year as hydro plants run 30% below last year - coal imports are expected to fill in the blank, as domestic assets are already at full capacity. Meanwhile, China continues its acquisitions of stakes in oil companies around the world to secure supplies - this week CNOOC landed in South America in a deal with Argentina's Bridas Energy. Several other big oil and gas deals, many represented by U.S. law firms, are detailed in the AmLaw Daily. ... Christopher Williams, BERC Newsletter, March 29, 2010.

Logical? A German university has won in an American contest: the most energy-efficient house, powered by the sun. http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0422/
Germany-showcases-solar-energy-home-of-the-future  Let us say that we adopt the German design and derive our energy from the sun. What happens when a future volcanic eruption blocks sunlight for days? We switch to fossil fuels, like oil and coal, until the ash cloud dissipate. But if we have used up oil and coal and there be none to spare? Oil and coal should be saved for "rainy days", when sun, wind and geothermal energy is insufficient. This means that we should immediately switch to sun, wind and geothermal, keeping oil and coal in reserve.

Silver lining in the cloud. Though climate denialists have attacked climate change science with renewed enthusiasm recently, some corporations have already begun to profit on the effects of climate change. One super heavy lift transport company has determined that it can save time and money by foregoing the Suez Canal and instead paying Russia for permission to travel the Northeast Passage -- a way that has always been obscured by Arctic ice until recent summers. Though Americans' concerns about climate change appear to have peaked two years ago and declined since, industrialists are taking seriously the threat -- and opportunity -- of "climate exposure." Abstracted in UN Wire, 4.21.10, from an article in Slate, 4.19.10

A downside to wind farms? ... a recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that the opposite is true. Mass produced wind farms can actually affect climate in a negative way. ... Over land, the temperatures around wind farms would rise by one degree Celsius due their associated friction it produces with the air, similar to trees and hills. The wind farms reduce wind speed on the downwind side of the turbines. This in turn reduces the strength of the vertical turbulent motion, which is heat being transferred from the land surface into the lower atmosphere. It also decreases the flow of air from high pressure areas to low pressure areas, affecting places far from the wind turbines themselves. It is similar to temperatures at a windy beach; when the wind dies, the beach gets much warmer. ...Ron Prinn, one of the authors of this study, published on February 22, 2010 in the online journal, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, also stated that the paper should not be regarded as an argument against the development of wind energy. He urged that it served as a guide for researching the downsides of large scale wind development, which is important before serious investments are made. Prinn states, "we haven’t absolutely proven this effect, and we’d rather see that people do further research." http://blog.cleantechies.com/2010/04/06/wind-farms-harm-climate/

Are we stretched too thin? The following was posted online last week at www.consumerchange.com. My father donates to Veterans of Foreign Wars, "VFW", which mails address labels and note pads to donors. However, my father now has five hundred labels, and that pile keeps increasing as VFW continues to mail labels. (Remember Lucille Ball and conveyor belt with nonstop chocolates?) 1. There is NO indication that VFW (a) recycles, (b) reuses, (c) uses biodegradable material or (d) plants saplings in order to offset the trees lost to its mailings. There is a deplorably huge waste. 2. Going green could turn into an opportunity for VFW and the veterans whom it serves: (a) what useful, ecologically-friendly item could VFW insert as it solicits donations via mailings? My charities would help VFW find a substitute for address labels; (b) could veterans participate in the production of that item? (c) could veterans be paid to plant trees or even to grow substances which substitute for paper from trees, as there is quite a variety of substitutes for tree-based paper, like plant starch mixed with water-soluble adhesive? This kind of problem happens so many times in so many places. Who speaks up? Are we stretched too thin?

More unintended consequences. Remember "LOCO", "Limits on Constructive Output"? Stringent new banking regulations — aimed both at curbing tax evasion and, under the Patriot Act, preventing money from flowing to terrorist groups — have inadvertently made it harder for some expats to keep bank accounts in the United States and in some cases abroad. Some U.S.-based banks have closed expats’ accounts because of difficulty in certifying that the holders still maintain U.S. addresses, as required by a Patriot Act provision. "It seems the new anti-terrorist rules are having unintended effects," Daniel Flynn, who lives in Belgium, wrote in a letter quoted by the Americans Abroad Caucus in the U.S. Congress in correspondence with the Treasury Department. "I was born in San Francisco in 1939, served my country as an army officer from 1961 to 1963, have been paying U.S. income taxes for 57 years, since 1952, have continually maintained federal voting residence, and hold a valid American passport." Mr. Flynn had held an account with a U.S. bank for 44 years. Still, he wrote, "they said that the new anti-terrorism rules required them to close our account because of our address outside the U.S." ... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/26expat.html?hp

The battle with no winner. I have had a battle with the Whittier Daily News because youth from far away come in the evening to sell subscriptions on our block, even though our neighborhood has all the newspapers which it wants. From the following excerpt, one gets a sense of the predicament of newspapers. What do you think that the Whittier newspaper should do? NEW YORK (AP) -- Circulation continues to drop severely at U.S. newspapers, though the rate of decline slowed from the previous six-month reporting period. Figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show average weekday circulation fell 8.7 percent in the six months that ended March 31, compared with the same period a year earlier. Sunday circulation fell 6.5 percent. That's a slight improvement from April through September of last year, when average weekday circulation dropped 10.6 percent from a year earlier and Sunday circulation fell 7.5 percent. ... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-newspaper-circulation-apf-436809869.html?x=0

Does this call for righteous indignation? Good morning, Web Listings. How angry should I get? Traditional marketing says that you would get a .5% to 1% return on a mailing like yours.  It does not matter that you even got a 10% return.  Unsolicited mailings are an unconscionable waste of paper. If you are bound to make mailings (if so, why are you bound?), at least plant a hundred saplings for every tree which your mailing requires.  Or switch to an alternative type of paper. Yes, that would increase your costs.  That is an inevitable consequence of living in the twenty-first century. No more unsolicited mailings until you compensate environmentally. An e-mail sent on April 28, 2010

From around town. Susan Antonisamy has retired after more than 40 years of dedicated service to Beverly Hospital and the community of Montebello ... // Principal Martin Castro and Montebello Christian School recently hosted their annual International Day. Teachers, parents and volunteers prepared different types of food from around the world. After tasting a variety of culinary delights guests were treated to performances from international [sic] countries. // Heart disease, not breast cancer, is the number one disease afflicting woman [sic]. It strikes a woman every 36 seconds. Montebello Soroptimist members along with members of the community gathered at city hall and walked one mile to bring attention to this dreaded disease. ... // Congratulations to Schurr High School senior Jennifer Qevedo, winner of this year's Montebello Rotary Club Four-Way Speech Contest. ... // The Montebello Unified School Dstrict's Board of Education hosted a groundbreaking celebration recently for its new high school, the Applied Technology Center (ATC). Wearing hard hats and using golden shovels, members of the Board and MUSD Cabinet turned over the first soil to begin construction of the project, which is scheduled to be completed in June 2011, with students attending the campus that fall semester. ... The new ATC Center [sic] will cost $30 million to complete. ... [Remember the quote from Nicola Tesla, from the March 31, 2010, E-News, and the comment about Montebello students failing Tesla's test?] // Following the recent 4.4-magnitude earthquake in the Pico Rivera area and the devastating quakes in Haiti and Chile, Southern California Gas Company, "The Gas Company", is reminding customers that advance preparation is critical to getting ready for the next major earthquake. ... For more natural gas safety information, visit The Gas Company's web site at www.socalgas.com/safety. // When disputes arise over rent increases and other rental housing issues, the Housing Mediation Board provides an important resource to Montebello rental housing property owners and tenants. ... For more information, please contact the Economic Development Department at 323.887.1394. From Spotlight on Montebello, April, 2010.

An e-mail to US Bank, new to the neighborhood. Recently, US Bank bought out California National Bank. Our families' two accounts transferred to US Bank. 1. US Bank welcomed us with two identical mailings to the same address--much paper which we would NOT read. (Side note. The California Secretary of State, when sending information on ballot propositions, sends ONE book to a household, regardless of the number of voters in the household.) 2. In all that paper, I was hoping to see mention of "100% recycled material" or, even better, "We planted a hundred saplings for every tree used to send this mailing". No such statement, unfortunately. 3. US Bank could have sent us a postcard, telling us that we could find the same information online or we could order by mail. This would have been a HUGE saving in paper and money. 4. If US Bank is constricted by law to send us a mailing, then it should remonstrate with the government. MANY account holders, including yours truly, would gladly sign a petition and defend US Bank if it refused to comply with any wasteful requirement. I am hoping that US Bank immediately set a salient example by implementing the above. I am ready to assist with #4. E-mailed April 17, 2010.

 In Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall", somebody says to him that "good fences make good neighbors". Frost wonders how true that would be, as the neighbor has pine trees and he has an apple orchard. Frost says, "My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines..."  But there is something in human nature, at least in American nature, about territory, about possession, which gives sense to the neighbor's "good fences make good neighbors".  Now, how do good cooks make good neighbors? Most people love to eat, which means that most people love good cooking. My mother is an excellent cook, and one of her delights--and that of a neighbor--is her sharing soups, sweets, and pirogi. So, could "Good Cooks Make Good Neighbors" turn into a community day to share food and meet people? Our quarterly yard sales make for conversation among neighbors; we could have days in which people living on a block get to know one another through the food which they cook.

To learn about this newsletter, Montebello E-News, and the accompanying, growing Web site, “My Montebello”, visit www.mymontebello.com.  Also, you will find instructions and contact information for submitting announcements for publication in this newsletter, and for submitting stories to “Montebello Memories” at the Web site.